English
The surname Murphy is of Irish origin.Murphy is the most commonest name in Ireland and such one of the most Irish of names.The surname Murphy was originally in Ireland the O'Murphys,gaelic O Murchadha,'descendant of Murchadh',a personal name meaning 'sea warrior'. One can clearly see the character of the early Irish and Celts in their occupation of Europe from an inspection of the meaning of family names originating from Ireland;Clancy"ruddy warrior",Hanrahan"champion",Finney"soldier"and Murphy"sea warrior".The love of fight or battle is clearly reflected in such Irish family names.The name in Ireland is always pronounced as O'Murroghoo and anglicised as Murphy.Murphy being one of the commonest of all Irish names is widely distrubuted throughout the English speaking world;with something like 6000 subscribers in the Irish telephone directories,around 1500 in London,some 900 in Chicago,and 680 in Manhattan.Marie Louise O'Murphy (1737-1814) the beautiful daughter of a soldier settled in Rouen,France,she was an influential mistress of Louis XV.Her features were immortilized in many paintings by Boucher,whose model she was.The name dates back to early history and the Celts.One of the first fore fathers to bring this name to America is that of a Daniel Murphy,who came to America in 1792,he settled in Philadelphia.The surname Murphy, is the forty-third most common in America.